Aim: To investigate clinical significance of runt-related transcription factor (RUNX)-2 in epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC).
Methods: RUNX2 protein expression and its subcellular localization were detected by immunohistochemistry in 116 patients with EOC.
Results: RUNX2 protein was predominantly expressed in cell nucleus of EOC tissues. The expression level of RUNX2 in EOC tissues was significantly higher than that in normal ovarian tissues (P < 0.001). In addition, the nuclear labeling index (LI) of RUNX2 in tumor cells was significantly associated with the advanced clinical stage of EOC tissues (P = 0.001). Moreover, EOC patients with high RUNX2 LI had significantly shorter overall (P < 0.001) and progression-free (P = 0.002) survival than those with low RUNX2 LI. Especially, subgroup analysis revealed that EOC patients with high clinical stages (III~IV) in high RUNX2 expression group demonstrated a significantly worse clinical outcome than those in low RUNX2 expression group, but patients with low clinical stages (I~II) had no significantly different prognosis between high and low RUNX2 expression groups.
Conclusions: Our data suggest for the first time that RUNX2 overexpression is associated with advanced tumor progression and poor clinical outcome of EOC patients. RUNX2 might be a novel prognostic marker of EOC.